Law Commons^™

Remedies And The Psychology Of Ownership, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski, Forest Jourden

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Mortgage Drafting: Lessons From The Restatement Of Mortgages, Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

The American Law Institute's adoption of the Restatement (Third) of Property: Mortgages may have significant impact on the negotiation and drafting of mortgages. Rather than merely reciting the prevailing case law, the Restatement proposes approaches the American Law Institute believes are desirable as a matter of sound policy. This Article highlights key areas in which the new Restatement may affect mortgage drafting and suggests useful techniques for mortgage drafters.

Community Property Reimbursement, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article discusses how California community property rules intersect with dissolution and bankruptcy claims, dealing with the effect of a couple making the down payment with funds from one of the spouse’s parents.

Property Law: 1998 Survey Of Florida Law, Ronald B. Brown, Joseph M. Grohman

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Protecting Endangered Species Without Regulating Private Landowners: The Case Of Endangered Plants, Jeffrey J. Rachlinski

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Regulatory Takings And Original Intent: The Direct, Physical Takings Thesis Goes Too Far, Andrew S. Gold

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Section 3: Business, Commerce, And Property, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Foreclosure Shortfalls, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article discusses California cases where buyers successfully sued sellers for fraud, but offsets then entitles the sellers to foreclose.

Where's Dolan? Exactions Law In 1998, Jonathan M. Davidson, Ronald H. Rosenberg, Michael C. Spata

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fair Value, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article deals with California foreclosure, deficiency judgments, postsale redemption and fair value.

Finders Weepers, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article analyzes a California decision involving a finder’s fee agreement.

Touch And Concern Is Dead: Long Live The Doctrine, A. Dan Tarlock

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is Attachment Once Again Safe?, Roger Bernhardt

Publications

This article discusses a California statute that authorizes undersecured lenders to obtain prejudgment attachment on their debtor’s other assets in light of the one-action rule.

Reputation: A Vital Asset For Real Estate Practitioners, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Articles & Book Chapters

This article describes the law of defamation, with advice to realtors on how to avoid defaming others.

Property Rules Meet Feminist Needs: Respecting Autonomy By Valuing Connection, Katharine K. Baker

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Foreclosing On The American Dream: An Evaluation Of State And Federal Foreclosure Laws, 51 Okla. L. Rev. 229 (1998), Debra Pogrund Stark

UIC Law Open Access Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Not In My Backyard: The Clash Between Native Hawaiian Gathering Rights And Western Concepts Of Property In Hawaii, Samuel J. Panarella

Faculty Law Review Articles

This article examines the uneasy truce that exists between Western property law and the original Hawaiian native gathering practices that existed before the arrival of Europeans. The author traces the development of Hawaiian law from early cases that severely restricted gathering rights to more permissive results. The article demonstrates both the strengths and weaknesses of the present system of land tenure in Hawaii and argues for the continued expansion of native Hawaiian gather rights providing such expansion takes place within, not outside of, the dominant fee simple land tenure system now in place in Hawaii.

Property As Propriety, Gregory S. Alexander

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Reforming The Law: The Payment Rule As A Paradigm , Dale A. Whitman

Faculty Publications

The concept of negotiability of promissory notes is solidly entrenched in American commercial law. It derives from the English common law notion that a negotiable instrument is a reification of the obligation it describes; the instrument is regarded as a tangible form of the obligation. This notion has multiple ramifications, but three stand out. The first is the holder in due course doctrine which asserts that, when a negotiable instrument is transferred by the correct process (negotiation, which requires delivery of the paper) to someone with the right qualities (good faith, lack of notice, and payment of value), the maker …

The Tragedy Of The Anticommons: Property In The Transition From Marx To Markets, Michael A. Heller

Articles

Why are many storefronts in Moscow empty, while street kiosks in front are full of goods? In this Article, Professor Heller develops a theory of anticommons property to help explain the puzzle of empty storefronts and full kiosks. Anticommons property can be understood as the mirror image of commons property. By definition, in a commons, multiple owners are each endowed with the privilege to use a given resource, and no one has the right to exclude another When too many owners hold such privileges of use, the resource is prone to overuse - a tragedy of the commons. Depleted fisheries …

Understanding Mahon In Historical Context, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Despite its enormous influence on constitutional law, Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon is just such an opinion; the primary purpose of the author’s article Jam for Justice Holmes: Reassessing the Significance of Mahon is to clarify Holmes's intent by placing the opinion in historical context and in the context of Holmes's other opinions. While other scholars have also sought to place Mahon in context, his account differs in large part because of its recognition, as part of the background of Mahon, of a separate line of cases involving businesses affected with a public interest.

The author argues that at …

The Tragedy Of The Anticommons: Property In The Transition From Marx To Markets, Michael A. Heller

Faculty Scholarship

Why are many storefronts in Moscow empty, while street kiosks in front are full of goods? In this Article, Professor Heller develops a theory of anticommons property to help explain the puzzle of empty storefronts and full kiosks. Anticommons property can be understood as the mirror image of commons property. By definition, in a commons, multiple owners are each endowed with the privilege to use a given resource, and no one has the right to exclude another When too many owners hold such privileges of use, the resource is prone to overuse – a tragedy of the commons. Depleted fisheries …

The Original Understanding Of The Takings Clause, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute Papers & Reports

The champions of the property rights movement claim that they are fighting to restore the original understanding of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. They invoke James Madison and other founding fathers as support for proposed statutes that require the federal government to pay property owners when it prevents them from harming the environment or jeopardizing the survival of endangered species. Wetlands regulation, it is often said, "takes" property by diminishing its value, and the founders adopted the Takings Clause to ensure that, when government regulations diminished the value of property, the owner would receive compensation. Increasing numbers of …

Property And The Right To Exclude, Thomas W. Merrill

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court is fond of saying that "the right to exclude others" is "one of the most essential sticks in the bundle of rights that are commonly characterized as property." I shall argue in this Essay that the right to exclude others is more than just "one of the most essential" constituents of property – it is the sine qua non. Give someone the right to exclude others from a valued resource, i.e., a resource that is scarce relative to the human demand for it, and you give them property. Deny someone the exclusion right and they do not …

Hands Off! Civil Court Involvement In Conflicts Over Religious Property, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, Professor Kent Greenawalt explores how civil courts can constitutionally resolve conflicts over religious property. Although the practical and theoretical significance of this part of First Amendment law has often been overlooked, issues concerning church property continue to raise difficulties for both the courts charged with their resolution and the church members who wish to avoid the courts' intervention entirely. This Article argues that the general approach of noninvolvement that the Supreme Court has advocated in this area is consonant with broader themes in religion clause adjudication. Within this more general approach, Professor Greenawalt considers the two alternative …

Translation Without Fidelity: A Response To Richard Epstein’S Fidelity Without Translation, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article is a response to Fidelity Without Translation by Richard Epstein (1997).

Explaining why a body of work is influential is inevitably a complex matter, but part of the success of Professor Epstein’s writings undoubtedly stems from their grounding in the original understanding of the Constitution. He has claimed the mantle of the framers, and that claim gives his reading of the takings clause a deep resonance it would not otherwise have.

Explicitly rejecting Epstein’s reading of the clause and the history that lay behind its adoption, the author has previously advanced his own view of the original understanding …

The Endangered Species Act And Private Property: A Matter Of Timing And Location, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

For all the controversy surrounding the effect of the Endangered Species Act ("ESA") on private property, precious little information has accompanied the heated calls for strengthening or weakening the law's land use proscriptions. Preservationist groups and property rights groups alike depend on staking out higher moral ground and producing "poster child" stories of imperiled species or property owners. The Fish and Wildlife Service ("FWS"), which implements the ESA for most of the listed endangered and threatened species, has compiled reams of data on its administrative functions' in support of its recent efforts through administrative (in lieu of legislative) reform to …

The Irony Of Deregulatory Takings, Jim Rossi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This is a critical review essay, exploring the thesis advanced by Gregory Sidak and Daniel Spulber in their book Deregulatory Takings and the Regulatory Contract (Cambridge University Press 1997). Sidak and Spulber argue that deregulation of the electric utility and local telephony industries can constitute an unconstitutional taking to the extent the state does not provide compensation for the investment-backed expectations of firms in the industry. In addition, they argue that economic efficiency requires this result. This review takes Sidak and Spulber to task for their reading of the case law. In addition, the review criticizes their argument for giving …

The Newest Property: Reproductive Technologies And The Concept Of Parenthood, Kermit Roosevelt Iii

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reason And Pollution: Construing The "Absolute" Pollution Exclusion In Context And In Light Of Its Purpose And Party Expectations, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Responding to the flurry of environmental coverage litigation over the application of the “sudden and accidental” pollution exclusion, the insurance industry during the mid-1980s largely adopted new standard pollution exclusion language for commercial general liability (CGL) policies. Since the mid-1980s, the standard form CGL has included the so-called absolute pollution exclusion, which provides that the insurance does not apply to bodily injury or property damage “arising out of the actual, alleged or threatened discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release, or escape of pollutants.” A “pollutant” is defined as “any solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, …